Do I Care if I Get Back?

While she accepted that the way she wanted to go wasn't a popular one, she still felt like they should have taken it. Even if the fire dragon wouldn't be in that shadowy area, there could still be some clue as to where it was.

She also understood that the longer it took them to find it that there would be that much less of a chance that they'd be able to at least get a challenge completion from helping defeat it. Much like Owen, Leon, Elwin, Bart, Patricia, and Patrick had done with the last main challenge.

She didn't object to them getting it, she just didn't want to lose this chance, and shew as confident that if they rush ahead, they might miss other signs about where to find the fire dragon. Although, she wasn't completely certain that she wanted them to succeed in wining this competition anymore.

If she went back to her own world, she wouldn't be able to be with Kim anymore and she couldn't help but worry that whoever she'd end up marrying wouldn't interest her near as much as Kim. Which of course, would only lead to more problems for her down the road.

She did want to see her father again and enjoy the comforts she'd enjoyed in his house. The house that she'd always considered home, but she had to balance all of that with what her heart told her she should be striving for. That she should be doing what she could to always be with Kim.

Not to mention that she was holding out hope that there'd be something, magical or otherwise, that would allow her to have children with Kim. Even though she couldn't say if that was actually possible or not. Just that she couldn't help but hope that there might be something she'd come across down the road.

So, as they started down the first natural stone bridge, she stayed quiet and kept to herself. She didn't begrudge Kim for maneuvering the argument to her favor, but she still couldn't help but feel like Kim might not feel the same about her as she was feeling about Kim. That Kim didn't care so much if they couldn't remain together or not. That she might be more interested in getting back to her own world and that Elin was merely a distraction and someone who was available to sleep with.

She was halfway down the first bridge when her foot slipped, throwing her off balance. She had moved to the back of the group, mostly wondering if she should just let the others move ahead of her so far that she could pretend to have gotten lost and leave the group that way. Not to mention that Kim was at the head of the group, leading the way.

Yet, despite her considering all of that, she certainly didn't want to fall the distance down to the where the river was below. Even if she survived, she would expect that it would hurt. A lot.

So, when Kim was the first to her side, grabbing her hand to help her regain her balance and not fall off the side, she didn't know what to say. She did use that as an excuse to pull Kim into and embrace and at least enjoy the contact of their bodies pressing against each other, even if it was just through their clothing.

She also couldn't say why she felt so comforted when Kim said words that she didn't pay attention to, only to the calming and worried town of her words that helped her feel like Kim often made her feel: That she was precious and worth being concerned about.

When Kim let her go, Elin couldn't look at anyone, but murmured her thanks to Kim. She didn't resist as Kim pulled out of their embrace and left to go back to the front of the group again.

Then when they started walking again, she couldn't help but look up and see how far Kim was ahead of her. She was pretty sure that Kim had been at least ten times Elin's height ahead of her, which meant that Kim not only had been keeping an eye on Elin, without her knowing about it, but also had been able to move faster than she'd seen Kim move in battle. Although, to be fair, she didn't always pay attention to just Kim when Kim fought anything.

Though, the events did make her feel even more depressed about everything. Part of her wanted to believe that Kim did feel the same for her, especially after that near fall, but then she was willing to return to the front again, not even indicating that she wanted Elin to accompany her there.

All of it just felt so confusing and Elin wondered if there would be anything that she'd be able to hold onto inside the maelstrom of her own swirling emotions.

+++

Elmo felt like something was off about Elin. He couldn't put his finger on it, but it worried him. He wanted to make sure that she was alright and wasn't going to do anything unexpected.

When she nearly slipped, Elmo had barely even registered that fact when he felt himself get pushed out of the way and he wouldn't be surprised if he'd have fallen if Jonas hadn't caught him. Then when he realized that Kim had pushed him out of the way to help Elin, he started to wonder if something might be up with Kim as well. Although, it could also be that if he fell she wouldn't care as much, which wouldn't surprise him at all.

When they started out again, Elmo couldn't say why, but he had a bad feeling. He couldn't say what it was about or why it was occurring now, but he felt that he should at least get them to stop. If only for the night.

Which he was pretty sure wouldn't be too hard to do. As it was getting rather late in the day and they had enough wood for a fire, and he was pretty sure that he say some vegetation up ahead not very far from where they would likely return to the path that they had originally been on.

As they reached the end of the stone bridge, Elmo knew that he needed to say something or the others would just continue on. Especially with how each step they took, the bad feeling seemed to get worse for him. Elmo didn't know what might happen if his bad feeling was a warning of some kind, only that he didn't want to find out if he didn't absolutely have to.

"Uh, shouldn't we stop for the night?" Elmo asked, afraid to mention the bad feeling he had.

"Why? We have some more daylight ahead of us," Jonas replied.

"But what if it starts getting dark and we don't see a slippery spot on one of the bridges?" Elmo asked, feeling like his words were just coming out with no sense whatsoever. Like someone had put a quarter in him and he just started putting words together, hoping that they'd make sense.

Jonas stopped and turned to look at Elmo. "Are you feeling alright?" he inquired, his expression telling Elmo that he had concerns about him.

While he felt like he should be offended at that idea, he couldn't help but feel like he should roll with it. If only to get them to stop for the night. Which he hoped would be enough to dispel whatever his bad feeling was about. If it was really a warning rather than something else. Like gas.

"You know, it might be better to stop for the night anyway," Kim remarked, surprising Elmo until he looked at her and saw she was looking at Elin instead.

Elmo turned to look at Elin and saw that she looked rather miserable. He wasn't sure if it was from her feeling tired, if she'd come down with something, or the fact that she had seemed to be very emotionally invested in trying to get all of them to return to the path they'd been on, where they had left it.

He didn't really understand why she'd wanted to go back to where they'd left the path, but he didn't see that it mattered anyway. Although, he did suspect that the shadowy area she had mentioned, even though he couldn't make it out at all from where they had been, was merely an excuse and not the main reason she had wanted to take that path.

Part of him wondered if she didn't mention it because she knew it wouldn't help her argument out at all. Though, he really didn't care which path they took. While he'd like to get back to his room and continue being the webmaster for the few sites he received a commission for, he was starting to not care. He was even starting to not care if he survived himself.

While he liked technology, he was starting to feel like it didn't matter if he didn't matter to anyone. His family in his world didn't really make him feel like he would be noticed if he wasn't around, in fact he was pretty sure they still might not have noticed that he wasn't around at all right now.

Then there was those in his group that he was suspecting didn't care if he was around or not either. As such, he wasn't sure that it would matter if he didn't just jump off the side of the canyon. If he did a swan dive, he was confident that it would end him with no chance of surviving.

However, he didn't do well with heights, nor did he like pain. Even if he died right away, he was confident that there would be a lot of pain before he no longer felt anything. While he didn't care if he continued to survive or not, he wasn't that eager to end himself. At least not right now.

So, he helped get their camp set up, not that there was much to do in all. He just used it was a method to keep himself busy and to do what he could to keep others from even so much as guessing what his thoughts were. He didn't want others to talk to him about it like they really cared when he was pretty sure they merely thought of him as a lead weight, but were to nice to actually say it.